"Not if he is forced to break it!" exclaimed Janetta, with a touch of fire.
They walked on in silence for a minute or two, and then Wyvis said,
"Do you believe in a promise made by a child of that age?"
"Little Julian has made me believe in it. He was so thoroughly in earnest. Oh, Mr. Brand, do you think that it was right to force him to do a thing against his conscience in that way?"
"You use hard words for a very simple thing, Miss Colwyn," said Wyvis, in a rather angry tone. "The boy was not forced—I had no intention of letting him drink the brandy."
"No," said Janetta, indignantly. "You only let him think that he was to be forced to do it—you only made him lose faith in you as his natural protector, and believe that you wished him to do what he thought wrong! And you say there was no cruelty in that?"
Wyvis Brand kept silence for some minutes. He was impressed in spite of himself by Janetta's fervor.
"I suppose," he said, at last, "that the fact is—I don't know what to do with a child. I never had any teaching or training when I was a child, and I don't know how to give it. I know I'm a sort of heathen and savage, and the boy must grow up like me—that is all."
"It is often said to be a heathen virtue to keep one's word," said Janetta, with a half smile.
"Therefore one that I can practice, you mean? Do you always keep your word when you give it?"